The self-proclaimed racist and white supremacist who is charged with murdering 10 people in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.
Payton Gendron, 18, will appear in Buffalo City Court at 9.30am this morning for a felony hearing before Chief Judge Craig Hannah.
Mr Gendron is charged with first-degree murder for carrying out the deadliest mass shooting in 2022 in what local officials have described as an act of “pure evil”.
He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Saturday night – just hours after he had live-streamed the attack targeting a predominantly Black community in upstate New York.
Mr Gendron is accused of driving around three hours from his home in Conklin to the Tops Friendly Market grocery store in Buffalo dressed in tactical gear and armed with an assault rifle on Saturday afternoon.
The gunman opened fire outside the store first before moving through the supermarket aisles targeting innocent shoppers.
Ten people were murdered in the attack and three others were shot but survived.
Eleven of the 13 victims were Black, including all 10 who died, and they ranged in age from 20 to 86.
Among those slaughtered was a former police officer turned security guard at the store who died trying to stop the gunman.
Mr Gendron was taken into custody at the scene and made “disturbing statements” about his motive, making clear that he was “filled with hate toward the Black community” and was targeting Black people, according to officials.
The firearm used in the attack had the n-word written on it and the number 14 – an apparent reference to a conspiracy theory.
According to an online manifesto which appears to have been posted by the gunman, Mr Gendron called himself a racist, white supremacist and antiSemite and detailed how he had been inspired by other white supremacist mass shooters.
He also cited the debunked “great replacement theory” which has repeatedly been spouted by right-wing personalities such as Fox News’ Tucker Carlson.
As the tight-knit community reels from the attack and the loss of their loved ones, further shocking new details have also come to light about the teenage gunman.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said that there is evidence that Mr Gendron planned to continue the mass shooting at at least one other location in the community.
He had planned to leave the Tops store and head to “another large superstore” to continue shooting innocent people but was taken into custody before he could leave the grocery store.
Officials have also learned that Mr Gendron planned the attack several months ago and visited the store two months earlier to scope it out.
Investigators believe he targeted the community that is three hours from his home because it has a majority Black population.
Questions are also mounting over how he was able to access a firearm after it emerged that he previously threatened to carry out a mass shooting at his school.
Police were called to the school over the incident and he was sent to a mental health exam.
However, he went on to purchase the gun legally – before allegedly modifying it.
More charges are expected to be filed against Mr Gendron and the US Department of Justice is also investigating the shooting as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism.
If convicted of first-degree murder, he faces New York’s maximium penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
If charged and convicted of federal charges, he could face the death penalty.
The massacre has reignited calls for stricter gun control in the US and a crackdown on hate crime and domestic terrorism.
President Joe Biden visited Buffalo this week where he vowed to expose those who promote the “poison” of white supremacy.
